... ... welcome to al jazeera america. i am john siegenthaler seei. we are here with top stories. >> one family with a net worth -- >> the president says the economy income gap is threatening a dream. he says one solution would be an increase in the minimum wage. thousands say they won't show up for work tomorrow. a one-day strike to demand higher pay is expected in more than 100 cities. workers average $9 an hour. 40

wells trapped this >> on "america tonight," in the world's richest nation, why is it so hard for so many to make a decent living? we will look at wealth, poverty and why a minimum wage just

isn't enough. >> gas is up. hiring is up but our wages aren't up. >> south of the border, the mexican city fighting off drug and gang violence to give its young people a brighter future. and beckham and the boys, the story behind manu and the class of '92. kiesh good evening. thanks for joining us. i am joie chen. we begin looking at struggles of cities and workers and the future of both. money, how cities balance their

economic needs and can protect their citizens. case in point, a fight for a living wage which has quietly quietly grown from a city by city movement putting more pressure on lawmakers in washington, d.c. we begin with a look in the call for a higher minimum wage. >> it was just over a year ago, when fast food employees gathered to protest low wages. the fervor caught off and has spread to about 100 cities this thursday. their demand: an increase in pay to $15 an hour, what they call a living wage. amid growing attention to low wages, president obama addressed the nation with a renewed focus on income inequality. >> we know there are airport workers and fast food workers and nurse assistants and retail sales people who work their tails off and are still living at or barely above poverty.

>> that's why it's well time to raise the minimum wage that is blow what harry truman called for. >> a federal worker in downtown d.c., the extra money would mean getting her family off of food stamps. >> it's stress of. it's apply for public assistance for my son and i to get food stamps because of that issue, just because he is using formula. things have just shot up. gas is up. housing is up in this area, but our wages aren't up. >> the 21-year-old son-in-law wakes up and gets her son ready before heading fork work. >> we go down to the basement and around to back and start preparing everything for the place to open which was different from the shiny wow piece of the government that they are seeing. >> that's kind of how we feel. wow. we are at the bottom.

we are at a part where people don't even see us. >> niya and her son live at her parents' house with her four brothers and sisters. having a playing field helps us you be able to buy more, helps the economy. >> she was part of 100 people who rallied outside of the washington, d.c. chamber council for a minimum wage. >> congress's failure to act and congress's failure to take care of those who have been left behind, not just from the recession but the people who want things to become better and better. we are becoming a hunt tree of haves and have nots. we need to be sure we have a living wage. members of the council have one more round of voting before it goes through. president of the dc chamber of commerce insists the bill will hurt the local jobs market. >> for every 10% increase in the minimum wage, employment

decreases by 1 to 3%. sot a small business person, that becomes a big deal. and it may be laying off a person to be able to afford to pay that. and that's not what you want people to do. >> this isn't the first time the nation's capitol has introduced living wage legislation. the controversial wal-mart bill proposed this summer would have required the super store and other large retailers to pay a wage of at least 12.50 an hour. this summer, wal-mart threatened to scale back plans if the council passed the bill. in september, may the mayor vetoed the bill. at a time. >> protests. >> we must have justice. >> wal-mart has been one of those companies that has the lowest wages. >> how do you feel about wal-mart? >> the best thing that could

have happened in this neighborhood. >> do you think this will help the minimum wage? >> absolutely. absolutely, i do. you don't think so? >> although the mayor has already vetoed one living wage bill, this new legislation could stand a chance. d.c. is one of several cities now working toward higher wages. at least nine states have recently considered increases of their own. m the mayor says he wants the raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour. if the bill passes, washington, d.c. would have one of the highest minimum wages in the country. one of the richest cities in the world. >> that report from the americans, and joining us here is d.c. council member vincent orange who has been part of this discussion about raising the minimum wage in the city, itself. let's talk a little bit about this because there is this

notion you actually were pushing for a higher wage. the mayor says he wants lower than 11.50. how do you figure out what that is? >> well, as indicated, i introduced legislation that calls for a minimum wage of $12 and $0.50 per hour. as you have commenced the dialogue, we had montgomery county in maryland. >> neighboring. >> neighboring. and we decided that, you know, it would be best if we could build a consensus around the ner and the consensus was $11 an $0.50 an hour. a business coming into this area continue pick one jurisdiction over the other. we would be uniform and the three jurisdictions would count for about two medical million people so this is a place where a large retail or any business can do business and prosper and at the same time, we are seeing our citizens must prosper with you as well. >> is this a model for other

communities around the nation? the rest of the countries, other cities to step up here? the model you use which required working with the neighboring communities to make sure you were all on an even playing field. >> absolutely. this wouldn't be what we took across america. the leadership of this happening on local levels across the country, in seattle, washington, and san francisco and new york and all of these locations local commissions working with citizens to make sure they have a better quality of life. in america, proceductivity has r outgrown wages that are being provided. we have to make sure we close that gap. we have to give people an opportunity to have the basics in life, to have access to a good-paying job, affordable housing, affectable healthcare and a good education for their children. >> so the president did the talk about income inequality and trying to raise that. look. it's going to be different in different places and at some

level, can we depend upon the federal government to make that kind of change or is it going to be a case by case community? are we going to create a patchwork of what a minimum wage can be? >> i think it is going to be by community, by the jurisdiction, by city boy city because east city has a different cost of living. here in the district of columbia, it's extremely costly to live in the nation's capitol. wages are somewhere around $35 per hour. so even at $11 and $0.50 per hour, that's less than $25,000 a year. so you would need to have another person join with you just to get to a 50,000 dollar household to be able to go out and try to find affected alan hou affordable housing? >> some say this tends to dampen employment and you have to increase wages to workers, you might higher fewer people.

>> that isn't true. the d.c. chamber represent wal-mart. my job is to represent the general welfare of the citizens. >> same argument is made around the country? >> same argument but the counter argument is that our citizen citizens are nut making enough money to be self-sufficient. they have to go to the federal government for food stamps, for a housing voucher, energy assistant, child care on average is about $13,000 a year. if i am paying you 825 an hour, that's only about $15,000. who is going to watch your kids? on thanksgiving day, i had the opportunity to go to the shelter here a lot they go to work every day but they have to live in the shelter because they cannot afford the rent. they cannot afford to buy food, transportation to get back and forth to work. metro just announced another increase, increase in the cost of transportation, but if wages are not increasing, that means that family has to make a choice. something has to give so they

can get to work. >> if businesses want to develop, want to grow but they are intimidated or they feel they are too restrained in their own financial futures to do more higher, what happens then? >> in the nation's capitol, that's not happening. we have 63 active projects that are taking place. we have the highest disposable income. >> that's the reason why these retailers want to get into the nation's capitol. >> that's where their growth opportunitiesly. they have saturated the suburbs. they need to get into the inner cities where people are moving back because they don't want to be involved in the two-hour, three-hour commute back and forth. >> you are telling other cities follow our lead on this? >> absolutely. i think cities are looking at each other. if you look at san francisco, they are up to $10 and $0.74 an hour and no one has left the city of san francisco. san jose, even in canada. canada now has $10 $0.25 an

hour. wal-mart is paying $12 starting wage in vail, colorado. this is the nation's capitol for less than a year, and their average hourly wage is $21 and $0.96 per hour, typically employee there makes $45,000 on annual basis. it's a different model, though. it's a model that works. trader joe's is coming to the district of columbia. they are paying a living wage. we have to share a little bit of prosperity. it's hard for me to accept an organization where the ceo makes $11,000 an hour or $200 a minute and they want to cry about paying two or $3 more in an hourly wage. you can't reconcile that. so i think right now, we want to have both to prosper together and move forward in life. >> senator orange, thank you for being with us and having this discussion. >> thank you. >> ahead on "america tonight,"

the bankruptcy fallout. why pensioners across the country are keeping a close eye on detroit and what it could mean for other american cities and millions of retirees.

welcome back. the city of detroit is the now officially bankrupt. the questions on the mind of many city workers is what will happen to our pensions. it's not clear just yet. it's on the lips of many others who live in struggling municipalities around the country. already lessons to be learned from cities and towns and countries who have received pensions. it could offer clues. for example, rhode island, a community close to emerging from bankruptcy now but cut 25% of worker pensions. 20% can be slashed in the year 2016. retirees lost their healthcare benefits and their union protection in the process. but what costs to residents will -- what price will that

come? on the financial problems in struggling cities and particularly the pension issues, frank shafroth from george mason university. you have been involved in the municipal bankruptcy law. you looked at the pension question. help us to understand how big a deal is this for other cities looking at the detroit situation now? >> it's a very big deal for those cities like michigan that are in michigan or california, where the contract cannot be broken. >> so to clarify that, part of what the judge said yesterday was, a, yes, you can proceed with bankruptcy. >> yes. >> but part of that is the pensions for city workers are no longer in his mind protected? >> the federal law overcomes the state constitution. >> the federal law of bankruptcy. >> yes. >> will overcome. so that means that's a negotiation that we are talking about in detroit? >> that's correct.

>> effective with that decision yesterday, they are now beginning the next round, the emergency manager will have to negotiate with all of the creditors, 100-plus creditors including the unions to come up with something that he can come back and say, here is a fair and equitable way to get the city's budget back in balance and give the city a future. >> it's pretty sig navy can't, 25%, another 20% a couple of years later. we are talking about a pretty significant cut for retirees probably living on a limited pension? >> the average pension, a lot of people don't understand. the average pension in detroit is $19,000 a year. >> that's really very little money when you think about it to begin with. >> what is the likelihood here? $0.50 on a dollar, $0.75 on a dollar? is there any way to no? >> there is no way to know now because you are going in.

clearly the federal bankruptcy judge here has been concerned. i talked to some of the people when i was out in detroit specifically about the situation. a number of the pensioners were not represented by anyone. >> that's also the case with some of the retirees in detroit. he asked those who were not represented by a union to make sure they, unlike in rhode island, had some legal representation. >> give me examples here what other communities might be facing the same? are we talking about just those communities? >> san bernadino refused to make payments to the california retirement system. >> that's become a big issue.

>> stockton is actually' its way out of bankruptcy. but in that process, it's got to get a majority of its creditors on board one has indicated in the wake of the judge's ruling is that the idea his client is going to make maybe a penny on the dollar. >> a penny? >> a penny on the dollar and the pension will be held sacrosanct, and he will file a challenge to that. i think there is probably a fair chance. you are right, the world has changed since yesterday fundamentally. >> other communities are watching this. is there another way to go is this an appeal that becomes a federal level supreme court case? >> i think there is a very good chance. you have a federal law against the state constitution.

which one trumps? you know, judge rhodes was very clear in his decision, but it's going to be appealed. an appeal was filed yesterday already, so i think there is a good chance this will go through because this is a case of first impression. we have never had this before. >> it will be interesting to watch, frank shafroth from george mason university. switching gears in california to a groundbreaking development, the country's first high-speed rail project, the $68 milli $68 million railway system will be the largest railway project in the country. the hope is it will resurrect the valley where there have been many challenges. the backers of this transit system are determined to roll through the obstacles. here is the story >> reporter: not much happened in the city of fresno. in the middle of the state, some say the middle of nor.

it's residents have long felt neglected in downtown and on outskirts are signs of a daily struggle. unemployment is common here, one of the highest rates in the country, consistently above 10%. but in this dil appear dated part of california, things might be picking upidated part of california, things might be picking up this is the futua vi of an electric high-speed rail whipping through town, an ambitious project for a state in love with automobiles. to connect san francisco to los angeles at speeds of up to 220 miles an hour. the system would extend to sacramento and san diego running a total of 800 miles in length. >> it's a game changer for california. it's how we move around the state. right now, we get in our car, want to go to san francisco or los angeles, we could, you know, potentially take amtrak.

we could fly. >> this doesn't look like the kind of place you would expect for a high-speed train station to be built but california and the federal government want to start in one of the poorest reamingons of the state it's not only to move people but to jump start the economy. >> all swored. the city hopes to turn the unemployed in a dedicated force to work along the railroad the next decade and belong. you are looking at the first group of trainees in this program. many here have spent their lives working odd jobs and now learning schools, the tools of the trade for a permanent career. beforehand, nothing. i am out of work, raising my 3 little daughters, i am a single father, so for this opportunity, it's really exciting for me for the possibility. >> germane armstrong and others here made the cut, picked from

over 1,000 access, reflecting the sdprapt demand for employment in the central valley. the rail authority hopes to bring 20,000 jobs here over the next five years, an exciting prospects for life-long resident, randy hilding ao? >> i know it's a consistent employment, 15 to 20 years. >> one of two women here had trouble finding work because of her past criminal record. she wants to start anew and hopes for a union job after training. >> just being able to support myself, just support myself without public assistance. i am able bodied and working body and that's what i want to do. >> make sure you wear your eye protection. >> the city will have to turn out many more graduates of this program and at a faster pace if it would like to make a dent in

the you know employment rate. what's happening here, opportunity has not happened in fresno for a long time. even some of those you wouldn't expect to work on the project have put the greater good above personal interests. jame merriam's printing business will have to make way for the tracks? >> my family are all here we all grew up here. so, yeah, i have a lot of formedness for the area. i would like to see it progress. it is an opportunity for us to do that. most residents are skeptical. a conservative enclave has distrust of the government. >> the government projects, you have to be within budget. this thing has a lot of crony capitalism. i think they should do it like they use high speed, the locomotive, because the infrastructure for electricity

is way, way too expensive. >> the rail authority is moving ahead unpreturned in what will be one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the country. >> all of these projects have had, you know, negativity surrounding it, you know, bart had it. the golden gate bridge had it. you know, the water system had it. the university system had it. you know, so there is always going to be opposition to big professional public projects. for a century, all the central valley has ever known has been agriculture. that has driven its economy. it has made men rich yet kept most here poor, and so see this moment as a season of change. >> last week, a california judge

dealt the rail project a setback denying a request to speed up construction for a 14 mile route from fresno to bakersfield. >> in our next segment, south of the border where drug violence and heartache rule the streets. the people of ciudad juarez are playing for keeps.

>> now a snapshot of stories making headlines, hezbollah is searching for whoever is responsible for the death of its military leader. the assassination took place after saudi arabia was accused of the deadly bombing in beirut last month. newtown families t 911 calls placed from the elementary school. 7 panicked calls recorded freedom of calls. the freedom of information

commission ordered the release of those calls. stolen in mexico, a cargo truck hauling dangerous radioactive material. the next co nuclear commission says the thieves removed cobalt after stealing the truck from a gas station. it is one of the most profitable businesses in the world, the u.s. narcotics market is worth about $60,000,000,000 a year according to the united nations. americans addiction to illegal drugs kills thousands of people every year south of the border. rival gangs battle over drug routes going north. the past six years, nearly 70,000 people in mexico died in the so-called drug war, a city which has suffered from the greatest lots is ciudad juarez. today, the community is showing some signs of recovering. al jazeera's rachel has this report in a city that's trying to turn itself around.

>> reporter: if you want to understand the fighting spirit of people of ciudad juarez, look no farther than the jaguars, after losing two players in the worst massacre the city went through, this year, they became state champions, a bittersweet victory, especially for the lady who's 17-year-old son was gunned down more than three years ago. >> of course it's difficult coming to the ball field. i say to myself, i wish i could see him run just one more time. but i know he is here. you can feel his spirit. >> rodrigo was at a birthday party. en for those who can grown used to hearing about killing on a daily basis, the mats kerr was shocking. >> they were innocent young people with dreams and their whole lives ahead of them. what happened didn't just change my life. it changed the city and this

country. it wasn't easy for her to return to the field. but coach fernando diago encouraged her and her family to support the team. with practically no funding, he offered uniforms out of his own pocket. >> violence has touched every one of these friends, if it wasn't a friend can it was a cousin a brother, an uncle or mother. many have been killed. the former president declared war on the drug cartel. this city was on the front line, a bloody turf war erupted between the juarez and the other cartels. lawless and violent, juarez was a poster child. now, the number of killings has dropped from 10 murders a day to 1. some credit retired colonel who

took over as police chief in 2010 but his methods remain controversial. many believe they use tactics as violent and cruel as the criminals they are fighting. last year, the number of arrests shot up from 1 and a half thousand to nearly 14,000 >> this sign says we demand justice and stop the abuses. this protests have been happying now in juarez almost on a daily basis. all of these people hearsay members of their family have been detained and thrown in jail without any evidence. >> this hostility between police and the community run deep. one policeman who asked us to hide hi identity spoke out. he wants change. >> torture has included suffocating suspects with plastic bags, using a wet rag to go asphyxate them and beating and electrocuting them. >> do they ever kill? >> yes.

they killed he said the police strategy was to target the juarez cartels over the lower cartels. >> one person would hit them. >> our multiple requests to interview the police chief were denied. whether this relative calm is a result of the cartel winning the turf war or the police crackdown or both, one thing remains the same: the steady flow of drugs across the border to the united states. ciudad juarez says stopping drug traffic wasn't his job. >> i was taking care of my kids. for a moment. juarez has been slowly coming back to life.

you can see it in the faces of these women dance can at did you have any in a park, something unthinkable when this city was the most murderous in the world. back then action few dared to leave their homes as the sun went down. president park is this neighborhood's first, built with government funds which poured into the city after the massacre, hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for school, hospitals and other social services. >> while the children play at the other end the park, father mario nunez hosts another memorial for families who lost loved ones. every month, relatives come remembering those dead. ruth showed me the name of her husband, she says so much suffering has changed the city's culture and they must all act? >> as a community, we have a lot of work to do. we can't sit and wait for the

government to do it. what happened here is because we failed. >> father mario says the community is caught between a painful past and an uncertain future. >> we are in a very delicate moment that we want to get out of: corruption, dig gregation of values that caused us to lose 10,000 lives. he said government spending wasn't enough to change the root cause of the violence. nearly half a million people living in poverty now that most of the federal money dried up, he worries any progress made could be undone. back on the field, the coach challenges the players to give more to the team and to each other. on the sidelines, people are watching, supporting the boys and thinking of rodrigo.

? >> this jersey is my life. it was my son's number. i wear it with a lot of love as if he was still playing. my son always said, mom, you can't stop running, and in a way, my family, my children, my husband, we keep trying to move forward, overcome. it's difficult but not impossible. >> a lesson for her family, and, she says, for the people of a city still struggling to recover. >> al jazeera rachel reporting. now looking ahead here on america tonight, mandatory minimums. prosecutors using a bargain tactic as a result. >> why wouldn't you take the plea if the prosecute is threatening you with 100 years? why wouldn't you take the me? >> it's hard to believe. he specially considering the

murder, 115 years of prison. i just refuse to believe that should happen. >> 55 years in prison for dealing pot? america tonight, exploring the case of weldon angelo and a new report on how drug defendants are forced to accept guilty please or face excessive sentences. >> that's coming up on thursday. coming up on "america tonight," on assignment, the artful life of dan eldon. remember that talent next.

>> they were bashing my head with their boots... they had their guns on me and everything.... >> how much more real can this get? >> fault lines only on al jazeera america new details on what lead to that deadly plane crash in new york. the commuter train was traveling far too fast, more than 80 miles an hour down the track. the question is why? lisa stark joins us from washington. what is the latest? >> that train should have been going at 30 miles an hour around the curve. there are no published reports this morning including from wabc, those reports indicate that the engineer, william rockefeller has said he may have

zoned out at the controls. he may have dosed off and then snapped awake too late to stop the train in time the ntsb will continue to interview the engineer and also look back at coming up on "consider this," president obama gives a talk on the economy. why is the man who helped get bin laden behind bars without much hope of getting out. the unique for animal rights, is the move to get chimpanzees personhood status going too far. >> should you think twice before going to a game? we will see you at the top of the hour.

>> welcome back. here at the morseem, the work of journalists is chronicled and honored in a number you have visits including one which is a tribute to journalists who have fallen while pursuing their stories. one whose short life has inspired creative work, dan eldon who was raised in kenya. he was all of that, brave and bold and lost in a gruesome assault 20 years ago. then he was just 22. and then, eldon was a photo journalist documenting somalia as things spun out of control.

on july 12th, 1993, filing a violent assault, protesters in the streets turned on dan and three colleagues working there. they were beaten and stoned to death. in the two deck it's a since that day, dan's mother, cathy, and his sister, set out to preserve the legacy of his brief but quite extraordinary life. it has inspired a number of other documentarians as adam may found when he sat down to speak with dan's mother. >> tell me about dan's work. what was it like. >> initially when he went in to somalia it was to tell the story of the famine. it was a desperate situation and it got worse. dan took the photographs that actually were among the very first to alert the world of this disaster. >> how would you explain dan's passion to tell these stories in this part of the world? >> i think, you know, when you have the opportunity to shine a light on a problem, and then can

say that light is being shown, it's addictive. it's hard to say i am going to go back to doing something else once you know the power you have to tell stories that matter. >> was there ever a sense of danger with dan working in that? >> i think living in a country like kenya, the danger, living in poverty, there is more danger than a person who might want to have something. i left in 1988. dan stayed on, leaving to go to university back and forth and was eventually in somalia. he continued until there was a time when i think the voice inside of him said it was time for him to leave. he said he would like to leave

but there was nobody to replace him. that led to a phone call between dan and i. he was just 22 years old. it was my birthday. he called me in london. i hadn't spoken to him for quite awhile. he said i think it's time to leave because it was getting terribly dangerous. and he said, mom, don't does me to go. the story is not over yet. i have to stay. and it was then that i said, okay. i had to really think about it, but i said you are living the life of your choice, and i am so proud of you and then the phone went dead. and that was the last conversation we had because two weeks later, he was killed. >> you think of him a lot? >> if i didn't have that, i don't know what would have happened to me to be honest. it's probably enabled me to do what i have done since then. >> and the gift you left behind, all of these journals and whitings and pictures and photographs because you have been able to tap into that, tell me about what creative vision

does. >> we started a foundation to celebrate dan's life and legacy and those of the other young journalists, dedicated to supporting creative activists, people who use the creative spark not only for themselves but for others. we focus on people using arts in media. right now, we have 100 projects and artists, musicians, dancers and mostly documentary film makers telling stories that need to be told about problems that need to be solved. >> so many journalists have been killed in action. why dan in why his story? >> golly, i like to think maybe he represents so many people. it's really not about dan. he is an inspiration, a spark for other people to connect with a creative spark within themselves and within all of us. >> let me ask you real quick about the shooting in kenya, what did you think of that? >> i was absolutely taken completely back to what happened to me. i think i put myself in the

shi shoes of the survivors. one person away from someone who died. the trauma of experiencing that over and over in their minds and witnessing it now with social media. we saw, you know, people in the mall, then thinking about how do we recover? and is there a way much taking what a certain -- what so many people have learned about transforming that ultimate horror into a unified focus or objective where you could take a country's grief and turn it into something positive. >> what would you say to people that have suffered a tragic loss? >> i would say you have to go through that grief, but, ultimately, i would encourage you to find something to put your energy, that grieving energy in. find something that you can grow like you would have grown the relationship with that person you loved so much. >> that's what i watched other people do, and it works. and you will find joy again. i promise.

>> thank you for joining us on "america tonight." thank you so much. quite a woman, herself, on the legacy of her son, and ahead on our final segment, revisiting the golden years of the world's most popular sport, the team known as "man u, manchester united, the class of '92 is next.

>> and now, a techknow minute...

is can welcome back. the biggest sports ents could be a serious way of playing. brazilians acknowledge all six of the stadiums to host next year's world cup will not be delivered on time. earlier said three would be late but brazilian sports leaders say three will be delayed and the others will be held back until the president can be on hand for ribbon cutting. they have some distraction at least for now as a new feature profiled two of the biggest

names in soccer, beckham and man che chester united. >> the new film, "class of '92" brings the glory days of both to the big screen telling the story of what is arguably the most famous soccer club in the world and the six who rose from unlikely beginnings to make man u a legend area name in sports. >> it serves this tidal wave of culture. >> it's like ruling the world. >> it seems like the magic dust had been sprayed. there are some great cities that aren't

most of their. >> they are huge, huge sports club. and they transcend the support. >> the rebuilding took place over three decades, until a new group of young players suddenly became the faces of man u. >> well, in 1992 is when the players in question -- there are six of them -- they won the biggest youth tournament in the country. it was a tournament that the club, the manchester united hadn't won since the '50s and '60s. they won that cup together and it was the same players who went

all the way through. i mean 1999. i tell you what happened. more of the film happened in 1999. >> essentially they came to it together. the club is the first with those six coming together. we focus on those six characters and followed through to when they are adults. >> were these players, were they individually as great as they were together, or would this have been identified as singular stars on their own? >> yes and no. >> inform two of the greatest in their generation, and i think they would say this was the unbelievable success they achieved was because they were a team and they played as a group. when you meet them, it's just unbelievable how -- how they genuinely are great friends who have been together since childhood. and, you know, and they are very

humble and they do play as a team. that's really, i think, the key to their phenomenal assumptions. >> there is the sixth star, beckham. >> it was great in the film where he is one of six and he was very clear he didn't want it to be just about him. he wanted to be part of the guys. i think seeing him in that context is what leads this film because how else would you see david beckham as one the of the group? i think the ethos behind the film was to prove the collective was better than the individual. those guys personified that. they are all about the communal goal. it wasn't about an individual thing. it was about doing it together as a team. that's what we try to show in this film. if you come together as a group of guystion really anything is possible. >> the other thing that strikes me is your film is not just about the team, not just about these individuals but, also, about at a time community. i mean this was a particular time, sort of a golden age aroufor manchester. >> it was an incredible time for

manchester. in the '60s and '70s, liverpool, obviously the beatles were coming through. they were kind of the sense of british culture. in the '90s, manchester took over. everyone knows about london but this is a slightly story we felt was just important. >> when you are making a small movie like this, you have to find a way to find the story itself. you can't get more exciting than watching a sports game with the uncertainty of how it will ended and the way these guys would go until the last minute. watching them in action, recreating them in the film. if you are going to mike make something about them, you have to find a way in which the story trans sentence that moment. we thought it was a analogy of what went on britain in the ' s '90s. >> the film "class of '92." dave and ben turner with us. from us tonight, a bike ride around town might be a trendy way to get around but having

having to wear that bulky helmet is anything but fashionable. sweeden has developed a fashion-forward solution. linda nyberg explains. >> bike something a big part of life in sweeden. about 80% of people ride bikes but only a third wear helmets. >> i have a big problem with it on my head. why should you wear a helmet then? >> i crashed with a helmet,t. >> yeah. >> rather the helmet than my head. >> we learned to ride a bike and we never used a helmet. >> the two industrial design students decided to wear a helmet people would actually want to wear. it will is high tech and high fashion for cyclists? >> they wanted something more discrete that would go better

with their hair styles. a lot of vanity issues. people were also asking for something invisible. >> unlike a traditional helmet, it is wrapped around your neck, zip it up and you activate it. and now, i am fully protected and ready to ride. >> the collar has sensors which analyzes movement 200 times a second to determine when a cyclist is the in a crash. when that happens, an airbag deploys and wraps around your head and neck. each year 300 people sustain head injuries in cycling accidents and road safety experts say any initiative to protect riders is welcome. >> in sweden, people are killed every year. we are work to increase helmet

use. >> the noise can't be reduced. at $500 apiece, some see it as an expensive investment. but innovativors are hoping it will become an essential part of the cyclists uniform and turn the idea of bike safety on its head. >> just on the head. cyclists having a tough time. >> that's it for us on "america tonight." remember if you want to comment, join us on our website, aljazeera.com/americatonight. you will see our team there and see the stories we are working on. tell us what you want to see. join the conversation with us on twitter or the ball facebook page. we will very long more of america tonight tomorrow. every sunday night al jazeera america brings you conversations you won't find anywhere else. >> you're listening because you want to see whats going to happen. >> get your damn education. >> talk to al jazeera. only on al jazeera america. >> oh my!